Military History of India: Book Review

Jadunath babu was born in 1870 in Karachmaria, in today’s Rajshahi division of Bangladesh, in a wealthy Zamindar family. Why do we point out that he was born in a zamindar family in today’s Bangladesh? It is not a hatred towards a feudal system, for sure. Hold on to those stirrups a bit, we will come to that presently.

Anyway, Sarkar moshai got educated in English literature, graduated from Presidency College in Calcutta, was a gold medalist in his MA examinations, and taught at Ripon College, taught history at Banaras Hindu University, and Ravenshaw (in Cuttack). Over time he was appointed Vice Chancellor of Calcutta university, and if my memory serves right, he also taught at Madras University.

Now, that is the background which he drew upon, to be (mostly) self taught and conduct deep research of Indian history (especially the Mughal period), he continually sought out material from primary sources and not translations.

During his working years he wrote prolifically, primarily, on the Mughal period, but also on economics in British India, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, history of Bengal and the Naga Sanyasis. His form of erudition, research and publication needed money. This is where his wealth came in handy. His ancestral wealth allowed him to be independent and not to be swayed by the required “narrative” of those days, or influenced by the strains and tugs of colonial India, and then nascent communism.

Over time, unfortunately, the strengthening of Marxist and post colonial thought and narrative has all but caused Sir Jadunath’s work, and himself to get faded from public memory. Few, today, have heard his name or ready any of his works. Even the folk at haloed Blossoms in Bengaluru do not stock his older editions, or the reprints (now that copyright for his works has expired). You might still find some of his works reprinted, with the online book sellers.

Jadunath babu, in his Mughal era writings, concentrated often on the military, its tactics and strategy. I picked, and read and reviewed (albeit a short one) one of his books on warfare in the hope that at least one reader will find her curiosity piqued enough to look for (and read) the book, or any one of his books. Also, that one more person will know of Sir Jadunath.

Ambitious in scope, and published in 1960, after Jadunath babu’s passing, this work spans a period of some 2300 years. This, in itself, is an arduous task. However, with meticulous detail, he traverses diverse eras, from Vedic chariot warfare to the gunpowder conflicts of the Mughal and Maratha empires, all the way to Peshwa Baji Rao. This expansive canvas allows readers to grasp the enduring trends and transformations shaping India’s military landscape.

Jadunath babu’s depth of analysis is equally notable. Beyond battlefield maneuvers, he probes the social and cultural underpinnings influencing military organization, tactics, and weaponry. Social structures and beliefs, and economic systems are dissected, providing a nuanced comprehension of the intricate interplay between warfare and society. He explains how the Mughal army became as mighty as it did, and why it imploded into itself. He explains how the non-combatants, at a point of time outnumbered the combatants some 10 to 1.

Jadunath babu’s work uses primary sources, drawing from Persian chronicles, Sanskrit epics, and colonial records. This approach, made possible by his deep knowledge of Persian, offers a rich, multi-dimensional perspective on historical events, bolstering the credibility of his interpretations and connecting readers with the past through its authentic voices. This also enables him to disdainfully trash many other interpretations, which were based on translations.

His objectivity is straightforward, recording facts, balancing praise for Indian warriors’ heroism with a candid discussion of defeats, strategic blunders and overall lack of preparedness. He avoids romanticizing past conflicts, presenting a realistic portrayal of war’s complexities and does not delve into “post truth”. He has chosen the battles carefully. For instance, he has a chapter on the 2nd battle of Panipat, but not on the other two. He has chosen, again, to dedicate a chapter to the battle at Talikota and then about Baji Rao’s whirlwind campaigns. You will notice, he has picked these battles based on demonstration of strategy, and those with historical impact. His portrayal of the battle of Talikota, perhaps exemplifies unpreparedness, lack of strategy, lack of vision all put together. This came to be the most important battle between a Hindu kingdom and Muslim army in South India.

Then, the book contains these little gems which one might not notice unless careful. e.g. the name Rumi comes from Constantinople, the eastern Rome. Certain residents took the name Rumi, from Rome.

However, I believe, that the subject matter of the book deserved a wider and deeper treatment and the addition of at least another 200 pages (on the 180). The thin-ness of the book neglects many other interesting battles, big and small. There are small sections though, on races which fought the battles and comprised armies, and how the artillery units got modernised and resourced. He does also reference the gunsmithing in Munghyr (now Munger) which continues till today.

There are some contemporary views in the book, which have now been found to be untrue. e.g. the Aryan Invasion theory, or even Aryans as a separate civilisation, has been referred to, in the book. We now know both those to be colonial figments of imagination, and then furiously propagated by Marxist so-called-historians like Irfan Habib, Romila Thapar etc. Reflecting mid-20th-century perspectives, his treatment, mainly of the Mughal era, may appear somewhat Eurocentric to modern readers.

The book, however, is a must read, for anyone interested in battles, Indian history or even the casual reader on an airline flight two hours each way.

I read a reprint edition by a company called Sanage. This perhaps is not the reprint to read. There are spelling mistakes in the text; upon a bit of analysis, it appeared that – the printing company has scanned facsimiles of the book available on the web. They have then run a free OCR to get the text, but have not had the luxury of a spell check on their PCs, or literate staff to weed out the howlers. The book also has missing two appendices on the Maratha System of War, and Elephantry, found in the original work. The footnotes, in the original, have gotten smooshed into the original text because again literacy is not a skill found in Sanage.

In spite of these considerations, “Military History of India” is an introductory landmark in the field. Jadunath babu’s masterful synthesis of historical data, insightful analysis, and commitment to objectivity positions it as essential for those seeking an understanding of Indian military evolution.

This remains a foundational text, providing a framework for further exploration and enriching our understanding of India’s complex military history.

The version that you would want to read off the web is here.

Sarkhel Angre – A Book Review

This is a book, which is back in print after a good dix decades and a half. It had to be purchased, and read. If not anything else, as a tribute to one of the most successful generals in 18th century India. The byline of the title says “The life and Battles of Kanhoji Angre”.

Angre, almost, has been a forgotten general from that period of time. His name came to fore, for a short while, as the Indian Navy’s new insignia was unveiled.

The new insignia, (the lower image) with the gold and blue octagon, borrows from Angre’s seal. There was some usual political furore for a bit and then Angre was forgotten again.

Manohar Malgonkar was a man of many parts. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Maratha Light Infantry, was a hunter, story teller, civil servant, businessman, farmer, novelist, and also a journalist. He was urged by many including Parakrama S Jayasinghe (of Asian Publishing House) to write on Angre. He did, and Sea Hawk was published in 1959.

Republished in 2022

What I read is a re-publication (not a reprint) by Harper Collins.

If you do not know enough about Kanhoji Angre, you can start with reading on wiki, as long as you manage to sanitize the textual contemptuousness of the (clearly leftist) article author (s).

From the point of bringing out facts and anecdotes from the archives and records, Malgonkar does a superb job. We must consider that he wasn’t really a historian, though he has some historical works to his credit. Novels, are his form. Because of using archives and records, the narrative of his book tilts and sways with the tone of his source material. The narrative favours the British, in places, and that is natural too. The British were meticulous record keepers, in many cases with “fudged accuracy”.

The title of the book may lead you to believe that this is Kanhoji Angre’s biography, or that you might learn about the battles (from a military perspective). If so, you might be disappointed. Maybe about 20% of the book is really about Angre, but more about what was happening during his father’s time, and during the time that he was alive. Primarily along the coast line from Surat to (say) Mangalore.

If you want to read about what was happening in that area, and how was Angre placed in that milieu…this is the book to read. It is about what was happening with the Maratha kingdom, the reign of Aurangzeb, the Siddys of Janjira, the British East India Company operating from Bombay, the Portuguese, the Sawants of Wadi, and a little about the Dutch as well. This is the time that the Maratha kingdom traipsed through the reign of Shivaji, to his son Sambhaji, and then to Shahu (in Satara) and Sambhaji (of Kolhapur). This is the time when Balaji Vishwanath became the Peshwa for Shahu’s kingdom, followed by son Baji Rao.

Unfortunately, little has been written about our maritime history. Whether merchant or naval. It is known that Indian merchants used to reach as far as Bahrain, and all along the eastern coast of Africa for millennia. Vasco Da Gama, fell in with some of these merchants who guided him through to Kerala. On the eastern side, there is enough evidence and recorded history of merchant and naval sea faring all the way into the eastern most fringes of Indonesia, and upwards towards Vietnam. In fact, there are enough mentions in Mahabharata of the people of those regions, and they feature in Indian lullabies even today.

I digress. Now, this book is not a military history, and does not contain tactical naval move descriptions through the battles mentioned and described. If you are so inclined and interested, do visit the Naval Maritime museum at Fort Kochi which is a treasure trove of accounts, history and battle maps and has most parts of a room dedicated to Maratha Naval warfare.

What the book loses in terms of a historic treatise, Malgonkar salvages with tightly written anecdotes because he was a fine raconteur. There are many interesting bits of information that you will uncover, which might help you connect dots. For example, the title Sarkhel given to Angre (by Shahu), was for perpetuity, and to be carried through generations. Angres did carry it through. The interesting thing is that you will find Sarkhel as a surname in Bengal. I will let you connect those two dots.

Harper Collins has gone to sh*t

Now, coming to this particular edition / re-publication of the book. Harper Collins has inserted an introduction of six odd pages by one Shanta Gokhale. The introduction is a travesty on paper and ink. There is nothing new that one gets to know about the book or the author that the book itself doesn’t mention. Adding in quotes from the book itself doesn’t help much.

Harper Collins has used Pritish Nandy and some Girish Kuber to add in comment blurbs on the rear jacket. Nandy is from advertising, has no context of the subject and clearly, has not read the book before commenting. Kuber, I have not heard of, though that doesn’t take away from his mentioning that the book is “real-life fiction”. There could hardly be a more damning comment on the book.

Harper Collins’ own contribution is adding footnotes, from information available on the web. In some cases, they actually have scribed down a URL in the footnote.

Verdict

Should you read this book? Oh yeah, absolutely. If not anything else, for it to pique your interest which you can carry forward and learn more.

Must you buy it? Well, Harper Collins’ additions are annoying at the least. If you so wish, and your morals don’t hurt you, you can find a PDF version of the original edition, on the web.

Connecting the “Forgotten Army” dots.

This perhaps is an odd one because it relates to military history and connects some random dots. This story came together as I read different texts, biographies and monographs at different points of time. This is a story of four soldiers, each other’s contemporaries, each having worked in the British Army or the British run Indian Army. Each of them achievers, even on fields other than the battle field, and each of them familiar with controversies. Their lives and careers intersected with each other’s in time and space, in different geographies.

Disclaimer: You will find the following to read more like field research notes, and not really long form text, because that is exactly what this is.

The four soldiers are Gen. J N Chaudhuri, FM William Slim, Lt. Col. John Masters and Maj. Gen. Orde Wingate. What connected them finally, of course, was the Burma campaign. Just in case you are not familiar with all of them, allow me to quick thumbnail sketch these officers.

Gen J N Chaudhuri took over the Indian Army after the Indo-China debacle of 1962

Jayonto Nath Chaudhuri came from an illustrious family in Bengal, with stalwart members. He was the Military Governor of the state of Hyderabad from 1948-49, Chief of Army Staff from 1962-66, and High Commissioner to Canada from 1966-69. Later, he wrote two books on military matters. He was commissioned from Sandhurst in 1928 and during his career moved between Infantry and Light Cavalry, taught at Staff Colleges, and was mentioned in Dispatches during battle. His international career took him to Africa, to the middle east, to Burma and then theaters in India. He took over after the mess that was the Indo-China war, and led through the 1965 Indo-Pak war.

Maj Gen Wingate, was to the Jews of Palestine what T.E. Lawrence was to the Arabs. 

Wingate, was the most odd one of the entire lot. Even mercurial, perhaps. Someone like him needs a separate article, just to list his eccentricities. He was accepted at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, in 1921; and received his artillery officer’s commission in 1923. Though he showed prowess as a rider, a good spotter, being able to accurately identify river crossing spots, he lived in want due to an extravagant lifestyle that he chose to indulge in. His international career took him to Sudan, to what is now Israel, to India and then to Burma. Wingate should be credited with being the creator of what we know today as Special Forces.

FM William Slim, in effect, changed the way wars are fought today.

Slim, started as Major General in the Burma front, rose up through the ranks while changing the face of the Eastern Campaign of the allies, and transforming the Forgotten Army to a winning one. His campaigns were no less dramatic, no less poignant, no less impactful than the more famour one at El Alamein. He was commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment at the outbreak of WWI, saw first action (and injury) at Gallipoli and then in Mesopotamia. He was transferred to the 6th Gurkha Rifles and later to the 7th. He, in WWII, saw action in Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea (got hit during a strafing in Agordat). Then again in Iraq, Persia and finally in the Burma front. He retired as Field Marshall and the Chief of Imperial General Staff. Uncle Bill Slim, rightly, is attributed with the transformation of the way battles are run in terms of tactical and rapid retreats, joint services operations and super effective supply chains.

Image Courtesy Akhil Kadilal’s blog post on the Chindits.

John Masters eventually got famous more because of what he wrote, particularly fiction, than for his military exploits. He wrote a score of fiction novels from 1951 – 1983. Among his non-fiction work, his three part autobiography is a delightful read. Born in India, he graduated from Sandhurst into the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and then into 4th Prince of Wales’ Gurkha Rifles[1]. He saw action in the North Western Frontier, Iraq, Syria, Persia, and then in Burma as a Chindit. In Burma, he got temporary promotions to acting Brigadier.

Now that we know who these men are, let us consider the intersections and commonalities and interesting trivia.

Both John Masters and Gen Chaudhuri were born in Bengal, trained at Sandhurst (of course), went to the staff college at Quetta (to learn and teach). Chudhuri in 1939-40, and Masters in 1942. Slim attended too, in 1929. Chaudhuri went back in 1943 as an instructor. Both Masters and Chaudhuri spent time being posted in Saugor, the latter attending the equitation course. Both of them saw action in Burma, and both died within a month of each other[2].

Staff college, Quetta in 1910.

Wingate started early with non-conventional battle with executing ambushes to trap armed poachers in Sudan and was quite at home in the jungles. Later in Palestine[3] , he raised a small commando team. The special squads that he raised, were used to conduct night raids on Iraq Petroleum Company’s pipelines[4]. He raised the Chindits, in effect, the world’s first Special Forces to operate deep behind enemy lines. The two Chindits operations had little military impact. The formation, in fact, lost about 1/3rd of its men (more due to non-battle reasons). But, they did have a tremendous impact in terms of morale. Guess where these men trained. In Ramgarh for a while, and then at Dhana (Madhya Pradesh) where a military station thrives. Wingate’s residential bungalow is the current Station Commandant’s office. Dhana is just 23 km away from Saugor[5].

Wingate was supremely politically savvy and managed to use Churchill and Mountbatten to get himself stuck down Slim’s throat to authorize both the Chindits operations (Operation Longcloth, and Operation Thursday).

Lt. Gen. (then Maj. Gen.) David “Joe” Lentaigne also of 4th GR, poached Masters into the 111th Indian Infantry Brigade (a Chindits formation). Masters served under Lentaigne when the latter took over the Chindits after Wingate’s untimely death in an air crash near Imphal. Lentaigne, to (then Lt. Gen.) Slim, was the obvious choice. The liking wasn’t quite shared by the Chindits themselves, and less so by Masters who served directly under Lentaigne. Masters continued to speak less than charitably about Lentaigne in his autobiography[6] and rather bitterly about the battles that he participated in.

Masters wrote, rather successfully. Chaudhuri wrote two books as well. During 1934-37, Slim did too. He wrote some novels and short stories under the pen name Anthony Mills.

All of them saw action in Sudan, Eritrea, Abyssinia, in the Mesopotamia region and Burma. All of them lived in India for a period of time, at least during the war. All of them got trained or gave training[7] in, then undivided, India. For each of these four, their acquaintance started in Africa. These acquaintances, fate and the war brought them to Burma. Of these Masters served under Wingate. Wingate knew Slim from Africa. It is not clear whether ‘Muchhu’[8] Chaudhuri (then a Lt. Col.) knew any of the other three personally except that he might have bumped into Masters in Quetta during his second stint there.

These are the dots that I connected. If you have more, I would love to hear.

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[1] This regiment continues to exist today in the Indian Army, as the illustrious 4 Gurkha Rifles

[2] John Masters (7^th May, 1983), J N Chaudhuri (6^th April, 1983)

[3] He turned into a Zionist around this time, and trained (to be famous later)  Zvi Brenner and Moshe Dayan

[4] You can see something very similar in the Tintin album – Tintin and the Land of Black Gold

[5] Now known as Sagar and houses the Mahar Regimental Centre

[6] The second volume of Masters’ autobiography, titled The Road Past Mandalay, deals more with the Burma campaign, and bitterly so. He wrote a series of novels with a central character from the (fictitious) Savage family, the stories placed primarily in India. The most famous one, Bhowani Junction was also made into a movie with Ava Gardener playing a key role.

[7] Slim was appointed head of the Senior Officers’ School in Belgaum, in 1939

[8] Nicknamed thus because of his mustache.